Financial management system

ABSTRACT

A financial management system includes a client terminal having a financial management application and a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface is configured to display transaction data, enable user modification of the transaction data, and transmit modified transaction data to the financial management application. The financial management system additionally includes a commercial web server capable of conducting online financial transactions. The financial management application receives transaction data regarding an online financial transaction upon completion of the financial transaction.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.09/664,587, filed Sep. 18, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,915, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/155,102, filedSep. 22, 1999.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present system is designed to facilitate the record keepingassociated with online transactions. In particular, this system isdesigned to increase the amount of transaction data relating to anonline purchase of goods or services that is retained by a personalfinancial management system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For a number of reasons, the use of credit cards, such as MasterCard,Visa, Discover, and American Express, have become many people's primarymeans for satisfying financial obligations. Currently, when a user isnot online, the user generally receives a receipt upon the completion ofa credit card transaction which is a physical print out includingvarious transaction data. The transaction data provided on a traditionalreceipt is generally limited to the date of the transaction, the amountof the transaction, credit card number, and the payee or merchant. Forpurposes of this application, a merchant is an entity with an onlinepresence that provides goods or services and receives valuableconsideration.

In order to ensure that the merchants properly billed the credit cardholder, or user for the purposes of this application, many users retainthe receipt. A number of computer based financial management systemshave been developed having at least a partial purpose of simplifying themethod of keeping track of various financial information, such asIntuit's Quicken™ and Microsoft Money™. Among other features, theseapplications enable a user to enter transaction data, for the purposesof monitoring spending, ensuring accurate charges by merchants, trackingaccounts payable, and other reasons.

With certain credit cards, the transaction data provided by the merchantcan be compared to the transaction data entered by the userautomatically in a function often called reconciling. In Quicken™, forexample, a user can download credit card charges from a number of memberbanks, and accept those transactions that accurately represent theuser's purchases. This system saves the user time in data entry andreduces the likelihood of data entry errors. However, the presentfinancial management systems provide neither a mechanism for creatingreminders for financial transactions consummated online, nor fordirectly entering information associated with online transactions.Furthermore, the present monitoring systems store data only about thetotal transaction amount, but fail to store information about theparticular items purchased and the costs of the particular items.

These and other drawbacks exist with current systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to overcome these and other drawbacks inexisting systems.

One aspect of the invention relates to the creation of a computerapplication that increases the amount of transaction data stored duringan online commercial transaction.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to the creation of atransaction data file that can be used to update information stored on apersonal financial management program. A transaction data filepreferably includes transaction data about the online transaction,including date of purchase, payee identification, productidentification, product price, and quantity per product purchased.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to the presentation ofinformation associated with a transaction data file in a Graphical UserInterface (GUI). The GUI would render the information stored in thetransaction data file. This information could be depicted as theinformation is stored in the transaction data file, or it could bedepicted in accordance with a user profile.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a softwareapplication that copies transaction data. The software applicationreviews data that is transmitted from a terminal device across a networkand copies transaction data to a transaction data file.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to an XML compliantimplementation of an online personal financial management program. AnXML compliant implementation would allow a user to gain extensiveinformation from a number of different sources, including PersonalDigital Assistants (PDAs), merchants, and browsers.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to the ability torepurchase goods and services based on previous purchases. Additionally,users can access the data to conduct analysis on the cost of actualgoods and services purchased, instead of tracking only the amount ofmoney spent with various goods and services providers. According to oneembodiment of the present invention, a user completes an onlinetransaction and is presented with a GUI that represents varioustransaction data. The user is allowed to associate additional data withthe transaction data, including a notes field and a category. Uponentering the desired information, the transaction data is submitted to apersonal financial management program.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an applicationsearches for data types that have been associated with transaction data.Once this transaction data has been identified, the data is copied to atransaction data file prior to transmission to the transaction datadestination.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparentto one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the detaileddescription of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method in which transaction data istransmitted to a personal financial management program.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart indicating a method of creating a transactiondata file.

FIG. 3 is a depiction of a summary GUI in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a depiction of a item-level GUI in accordance with anotherpresent invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of possible XML tags that could be stored in atransaction data file.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A preferred embodiment of the financial management system includes aterminal device, a personal financial management program, a commercialweb server provided by a merchant capable of conducting online financialtransactions, wherein the personal financial management program receivestransaction data regarding the online financial transaction uponcompletion of the financial transaction. The terminal device can be acomputer terminal, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), an interactivepager, a cell-phone, or other communication device. The personalfinancial management program could be Quicken™ or Microsoft Money™. Acommercial web server could be a server that enables a commercial website, such as NetGrocer™ or Amazon.com™, to conduct online transactions.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a FinancialAssistant is responsible for transmitting transaction data to thepersonal financial management program, and archiving the transactiondata for further purchases and analysis. The Financial Assistant couldreside either on the terminal device, or on a server by which theterminal device communicates with the commercial web server. In apreferred embodiment, the Financial Assistant resides on an InternetService Provider (ISP). This configuration allows the user to implementthe present invention without having to update the technology as it isimproved, among other benefits. However, it is anticipated that thepresent invention could be implemented as an application running on theterminal device or on a server associated with the commercial web site.The Financial Assistant may be implemented in any type of executablecode, including C++, Java, and VB Script.

FIG. 1 depicts one implementation of the present invention. In step 101,the Financial Assistant is preferably invoked. This step could betriggered automatically or by user action. In an automatic embodiment,the Financial Assistant could be invoked upon the occurrence of apredetermined event, such as the commencement or conclusion of an onlinetransaction. In a preferred embodiment, the Financial Assistant isinvoked upon the transmission of transaction data from a terminal deviceto a commercial web server. An alternative embodiment would be for theuser to visit a third-party web site that performs the FinancialAssistant functions, and serves as a conduit through which the user canprocure goods and services from the commercial web site.

In step 102, the Financial Assistant intercepts transaction data.Transaction data is data that is transmitted from the terminal devicedestined for the commercial web server. Transaction data preferablyincludes purchase amount, a purchase date, a payee, card identificationdata, and at least one notes field. However, it is not necessary toutilize each of these data types to implement the present invention.Step 102 can be implemented anywhere along the information pathway fromterminal device to commercial web server. In a preferred embodiment, thetransaction data is intercepted at the ISP.

Once the ISP based Financial Assistant determines that transaction datais being transmitted from the terminal device, the Financial Assistantbegins to copy each component of transaction data in Step 103. Once thetransaction data has been copied, the transmission to the commercial webserver is completed. Whether transmission to the commercial web serverhappens before or after Steps 104 and 105 is not material to the presentinvention.

Once the transmission data has been copied, the Financial Assistantreceives additional transaction data in Step 104. In a preferredembodiment, this additional transaction data comprises category andremarks. FIG. 3 depicts one embodiment of Step 104 of the presentinvention. Preferably, the category can be split between two or morecategories if needed. This category could have a default value providedby the merchant, or could be based upon previous categories selected forpurchases made from the particular merchant. The user can also associatenotes with the purchase. In a preferred embodiment, the merchant canprovide a default value for the notes, based on the goods or servicespurchased. The user can supplement this default value, or replace thefield with different information.

The final step in this preferred embodiment is the transmission of theinformation to a personal financial management program Step 105. In thisstep, the transmission is sent to a personal financial managementprogram and the data is entered in the appropriate fields. Uponcompletion of Step 105, the transaction data is preferably stored sothat the Financial Assistant can later recall the information forconducting additional processing of the transaction data, includingrepurchasing and statistical analysis.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the preferred embodiment of creating atransaction data file. In the preferred embodiment, a transaction datafile is the file that stores transaction data. This transaction datafile is preferably created by the Financial Assistant, and delivered tothe personal financial management program for analysis.

In Step 201, the transmitted data, or the information from the terminaldevice to the commercial web server, is searched. In Step 202, theFinancial Assistant determines whether the transmitted data containstransaction data. The method in which this Step will be implemented willdepend upon the e-commerce solution utilized by the commercial webserver.

Because some transaction data is transmitted in a secure manner and notuniform manner, it may be necessary for Financial Assistant to operateat either the terminal device or at the commercial web server, becausethe transaction data at the ISP may be encrypted. In a preferredembodiment, the ISP will have the ability to detect, copy and storetransaction data, even in an encrypted state. This structure could beimplemented by, for example, including a non-encrypted indicator thatcould inform the ISP that the data currently being transmitted includestransaction data. The ISP could then, for example, immediately copy theentire file and relay the transaction data file to the commercial webserver, still in a secure state. The ISP server could then decrypt thetransaction data file, and proceed with step 203.

If the transmitted data does not contain transaction data, the methodreturns to Step 201. If the transmitted data does include transactiondata, the Financial Assistant copies and stores the transaction data ina transaction data file in Step 203. If a transaction data file is notcurrently open, then the Financial Assistant may create a new or open anold transaction data file.

In Step 204, the Financial Assistant determines whether the transmitteddata includes a completed transaction indicator. If there is nocompleted transaction indicator, the method returns to Step 201. Ifthere is a completed transaction indicator, the method proceeds to Step205. In Step 205, the Financial Assistant preferably determines whetherthe completed transaction indicator also indicated that money or othervaluable consideration has been transferred between parties. Forexample, if a user had added a number of items to an online shoppingcart, and then decided not to purchase the items, the transaction wouldbe complete (yes at Step 204), but there was no money transferred (no atStep 205), thereby returning the program to Step 201.

In Step 215, the data transaction file is closed. In a preferredembodiment, the Financial Assistant will at least save any informationthat the Financial Assistant can determine has been saved by thecommercial web server. The data transaction file will be given a uniqueidentifier that will allow the Financial Assistant to recall theassociated data transaction file if and when a user elects to proceedwith a terminated transaction in which a purchase was not made.Alternatively, the Financial Assistant could delete transaction datafiles that did not have associated transfers in Step 205.

In Step 206, the Financial Assistant renders data from the transactiondata file. The information depicted by the Financial Assistant isinitially programmed to be the same as the information provided on acredit card receipt. In a preferred embodiment, the user can modify theinitially programmed rendering provided by Step 206.

In Step 207, the user preferably can add additional information,including the category that the charge is supposed to go to and anyparticular notes for the transaction. In a preferred embodiment, theFinancial Assistant provides default values for each of these based oncategory and notes entries previously made by the user, recommendedinformation provided by the merchant, or other criteria. The user ispreferably able to modify the information by either adding to it orreplacing it with new information.

FIG. 3 provides a representative summary-level GUI in accordance withthe present invention. Fields to 301 to 304 preferably are fixed by theFinancial Assistant, whereas Fields 305 and 306 can be manipulated bythe user. Summary GUI 300 represents the initial Financial AssistantGUI. In a preferred embodiment, the user can modify this depiction tosuit the user's taste. Preferably, the Financial Assistant will includea GUI wizard that will allow users to modify the appearance andfunctionality of the various GUI's.

Field 303 includes the name of the merchant. In a preferred embodiment,the user can click on the field and be taken to the merchant's web site.Right-clicking on Field 303 will cause a predetermined list of optionsto drop down in a drop-down hyperlink. Examples of such options wouldinclude customer service, parts department, or repurchase from theparticular merchant's site.

Field 308 is preferably used to enter the transaction data into thepersonal financial management program. In a preferred embodiment,activating Field 308 will cause the information in the transaction datafile to be copied into the appropriate fields within the personalfinancial management program. Additionally, by activating Field 308 theinformation is archived so that a user can later retrieve thetransaction data file for submitting repurchase orders or for conductinganalysis. The repurchase orders could be conducted through a stand-aloneapplication hosted by the ISP, through the personal financial managementprogram, or through any other implementation that would allow repurchaseorders and statistical analysis to be conducted on the transactionaldata file.

Field 309 is preferably used to prevent the transaction data from beingdelivered to the personal financial management program. In a preferredembodiment, activating Field 309 will not affect the online transaction,but will affect the record keeping of the online transaction. In apreferred embodiment, the user will be provided with an opportunity toarchive the transaction data file or delete the transaction data file.

Field 310 is preferably assigned the function of the repurchase icon. Byactivating the repurchase icon 310, a user can repurchase the items thatwere purchased by the associated online transaction. The differencebetween repurchase icon 310 and the right click option of Field 303 isthat the repurchase icon does not necessarily repurchase the goods fromthe same vendor. In a preferred embodiment, the repurchase key willconduct a search in accordance with a user profile to determine whetherthe goods and services could be procured from a different provider, or aset of different providers, at a better price. The user profilepreferably includes at least one of the following parameters: the amountof time that the user is willing to wait to make the purchase, the typeof quality assurance the user demands or desires, privacy policyrequirements, preference toward environmentally friendly providers, andother variables.

Preferably, the user will be provided with a repurchase GUI (not shown)that will allow the user to adjust the goods and services to berepurchased. In an alternative embodiment, the repurchase goods andservices could be entered into a shopping cart, for example, and theuser could purchase additional goods that were not part of the previouspurchase.

In a preferred embodiment, the Financial Assistant resides on a server.The Financial Assistant, accordingly, will be operating on behalf of aplurality of users. Information retrieved by the Financial Assistant byone user could be used while researching other user's repurchaserequests to decrease the amount of time and processing power required toimplement a search.

By activating Field 307, the user is taken to a more detaileddescription of the transaction data file. FIG. 4 represents animplementation of a preferred embodiment of a lower-level GUI 400 of thepresent invention. In a preferred embodiment, line-item entries that arethe exact same will be represented with their entire associated datarepresented on the lower-level GUI 400. On the other hand, in apreferred embodiment, line-item entries that in the same product type,but have some different associated data, would be represented as anaggregate with an hyper-link to access more detailed information. Notethat product, for the purpose of this application, can mean product orservice, and that there is no distinction for the purposes of FinancialAssistant between products and services.

In FIG. 4, the provisional filing in row 451 has two non-identicalentries. Therefore, Field 460 does not depict the associated data withRow 451, but contains a hyper-link titled “more detail” that will rendera further, lower-level GUI (not shown) that would identify a furtherbreak-down of the transaction data file. This process would be continueduntil each of the products listed contained the associated data and nofurther information was available in the transaction data file.

Row 452 indicates the lowest level at which the transaction fee can berendered. Because the transaction data file contains no additionalinformation about the “Transaction Fee,” the lower-level GUI 400 doesnot provide a hyper-link for more information. The repurchase key willrepurchase all of the items on the displayed GUI in accordance with theGUI. In an alternative embodiment, it is anticipated that the GUI couldinclude a check box for indicating the products that are to berepurchased or those that are not to be repurchased upon the activationof the repurchase icon 409. As above, the user will be provided with arepurchase GUI (not shown) that will allow the user to adjust the goodsand services to be repurchased. In an alternative embodiment, therepurchase of goods and services could be entered into a shopping cart,for example, and the user could purchase additional goods that were notpart of the previous purchase.

Field 405 is based upon the date and payee in the transaction data file.In a preferred embodiment, by activating the “dyor.com” in field 405with a right-click, for example, a user would have the opportunity to goto the web dyor.com home page, the customer service department, orrepurchase the items listed in Column 401.

FIG. 5 represents an excerpt from an embodiment utilizing anXML-compliant transaction data file. In the preferred embodiment, thetransaction data file of FIG. 5 would render the summary GUI 300 and thelower level GUI 400. The summary GUI and lower level GUI 400 could bebased upon Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in which the user, or a programdeveloper, could create the GUIs to suit the tastes and needs of theindividual user.

In a preferred embodiment, the transaction data file preferably containsonly the fundamental transaction data. Specifically, redundant data isnot included in the transaction data file. For example, the provisionalfilings share the same <product>, <name>, <quantity>, and <price> tags,and are different only in their <notes> sections. There is no record ofthe total price, because this transaction data can be determined fromthe fundamental transaction data. Information nested within the<product> and </product> tags are associated with the particularproduct, in accordance with the XML 1.0 Specification.

The product <number> is not unique to a particular vendor. This willallow users to compare the same product between a number of differentproduct providers. Additionally, in a preferred embodiment, theFinancial Assistant will be able to compare value between competingbrands of products and services. For example, if battery 1 is made of asuperior quality than battery 2, a user would generally be willing topay a premium for the superior quality of battery 1. However, if battery1 provides for 50% greater useful life than battery 2, but battery 1 isdouble the price, it likely would be more logical to purchase battery 2.Similar comparisons are possible, although more difficult and moresubjective, for virtually every type of product or service a person canbuy. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the user, the ISP, third partyservice providers, or others could provide relationships between similarproducts and services to determine what products and services willprovide the user Financial Assistant with the greatest utility.

In the transaction data field, the notes sections are generally providedbased on information provided by the merchant. However, a user can alsoelect to modify the information, or to establish in a user profile toautomatically modify the notes associated with the purchase of aparticular good or service or from a particular merchant.

Other embodiments and uses of the invention will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practiceof the invention disclosed herein. The specification and examples shouldbe considered exemplary only. The scope of the invention is only limitedby the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A financial management system configured totransmit a set of transaction data, the financial management systemcomprising: a personal financial management application configured tostore personal financial management application transaction dataincluding purchase amount data, purchase date data, payee data, and cardidentification data, and a financial assistant comprising: a set ofgraphical user interface generation executable code configured togenerate a graphical user interface at the conclusion of the onlinetransaction, the graphical user interface comprising: a purchase amountfield, a purchase date field, a payee field, a category field configuredto accept user input, and an accept button, a set of graphical userinterface population executable code that populates the purchase amountfield, the purchase date field, the payee field, and the cardidentification field based on the received transaction data, and a setof personal financial management application transmission executablecode that transmits the personal financial management applicationtransaction data from the fields of the graphical user interface to thepersonal financial management application when the accept button isactivated.
 2. The financial management system of claim 1, wherein thegraphical user interface additionally comprises a card identificationfield for identifying a credit card associated with the transactiondata.
 3. The financial management system of claim 1, wherein thepersonal financial management application is Quicken.
 4. The financialmanagement system of claim 1, wherein the financial assistant operateswithin the context of a web browser.
 5. The financial management systemof claim 1, wherein the financial assistant is part of a web browser. 6.The financial management system of claim 1, wherein a web browserresiding on the client terminal renders the graphical user interface. 7.The financial management system of claim 1, wherein a web browserresiding on the client terminal renders a graphical user interface whichprompts the user to select one of a number of predetermined categoriesassociated with the personal financial management application.
 8. Thefinancial management system of claim 7, wherein the web browser createsan associated list of merchants and categories based on previousselections.
 9. The financial management system of claim 8, wherein theweb browser provides a suggested name based on the name of the merchant.10. The financial management system of claim 9, wherein the web browsercreates an associated list of merchants and categories based on previousselections, and provides a suggested category based upon the associatedlist if the merchant has previously been associated with a category. 11.The financial management system of claim 1, wherein the transaction datais received from a commercial web server provided by a merchant, saidcommercial web server having a set of transaction processing executablesource code configured to process an online transaction when a set ofcommercial web server transaction data is received.
 12. A financialmanagement system for creating a reminder for a financial transactionconsummated online, the financial management system comprising: apersonal financial management application configured to store personalfinancial management application transaction data including purchaseamount data, purchase date data, payee data, and card identificationdata, and a financial assistant comprising: a set of graphical userinterface generation executable code configured to generate a graphicaluser interface at the conclusion of the online transaction, thegraphical user interface comprising: a category field configured toaccept user input, and an accept button, a set of graphical userinterface population executable code that populates the category fieldbased on the received transaction data, and a set of personal financialmanagement application transmission executable code that transmits thepersonal financial management application transaction data from thecategory field of the graphical user interface to the personal financialmanagement application when the accept button is activated.
 13. Thefinancial management system of claim 12, wherein the personal financialmanagement application transaction data comprises information about aplurality of particular items that comprise the financial transactionconsummated online.
 14. The financial management system of claim 12,wherein the personal financial management application is Quicken. 15.The financial management system of claim 12, wherein the financialassistant operates within the context of a web browser.
 16. Thefinancial management system of claim 12, wherein the financial assistantis part of a web browser.
 17. The financial management system of claim12, wherein a web browser residing on a client terminal renders thegraphical user interface.
 18. The financial management system of claim12, wherein a web browser residing on a client terminal renders agraphical user interface which prompts the user to select one of anumber of predetermined categories associated with the personalfinancial management application.
 19. A financial management system forcreating a reminder for a financial transaction consummated online, thefinancial management system comprising: a personal financial managementapplication configured to store personal financial managementapplication transaction data including purchase amount data, purchasedate data, payee data, and card identification data, and a financialassistant comprising: a set of graphical user interface generationexecutable code configured to generate a graphical user interface at theconclusion of the online transaction, the graphical user interfacecomprising: a category field configured to accept user input, and anaccept button, a set of graphical user interface population executablecode that populates the category field based on the received transactiondata, and a set of personal financial management applicationtransmission executable code that transmits the personal financialmanagement application transaction data from the category field of thegraphical user interface to the personal financial managementapplication when the accept button is activated, the personal financialmanagement application transaction data comprising information about aplurality of particular items that comprise the financial transactionconsummated online.
 20. The financial management system of claim 19,wherein the graphical user interface additionally comprises: a purchaseamount field, a purchase date field, a payee field, a category fieldconfigured to accept user input, a card identification field, and anaccept button.